


Freshman Year

by Chole_usvillan, Cymmetry



Series: Smallville 2014 [1]
Category: Smallville
Genre: #sorry not sorry, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, I think Lana Lang is an airhead, If you can't tell, Multi, Rewrite, Sexual Assault, Smallville rewrite, and doesn't deserve rights, gender flipped for diversity, like wow, oh god where do i start, rating will change later, so much gay, takes place in 2014
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24098416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chole_usvillan/pseuds/Chole_usvillan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cymmetry/pseuds/Cymmetry
Summary: What if Smallville happened in 2014?(a Smallville rewrite.) *editing while writing*
Relationships: Whitney Fordman/Lana Lang, fem!Clark Kent/ Lana Lang
Series: Smallville 2014 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1738702
Kudos: 1





	1. 1.1 Pilot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, as the summary of the story said, I'm still editing. In fact, the reason you're seeing this is because there is a complete edit that has to go through my beta first! It won't be a complete re-write, but I did a lot of grammar overhaul because I didn't know how dialogue structure worked. (Thank you public education system.) There's also other stuff that I changed (obviously), but you'll have to wait and see!  
> Please leave a kudos if you liked it and a comment if there is something I should change!  
> -Chole  
> 5/29

2002

"BREAKING NEWS," the news anchor bellowed, "A meteor shower is headed straight towards Earth and is set to hit Metropolis in less than three days! Government officials at NASA are working around the clock to reroute the meteors to avoid a major collision. We will continue to provide updates as more information is unveiled."

_Click._

"Hey, I was watching that," Sarah chastised _._

"Yeah hon, you _were_ ," Martha countered while putting down the remote, " _Now_ , you're coming with me to town, we need to stock up on food."

"Babe," Sarah stood up and looped her arms around Martha's waist in a hug, "we won't need supplies if this meteor shower isn't knocked off course."

"Haha, very funny," Martha stands on her tip toes and her lips peck Sarah's, "you know the only reason it's on the news is because _Mark_ the meteor man somehow came up with enough "proof" for a possibility of a shower and showed it to the local news station. The chance of it happening is slim to none."

Sarah's eyebrows raise and a playful glint appears in her eyes, "What if it’s aliens coming to conquer Earth?"

"No," Martha said, smiling. She pulled away and walked towards the front door. "C'mon, we have to go. I want to get there before the game ends. God only knows what the traffic is going to be like after."

"Take me to your leader," Sarah jokes while following her other half out to the truck.

...

It had been an unusually short drive to the grocery store and the two women finished their shopping ahead of schedule. Trips to town were almost _aggravating_ for Sarah because once they left the townhouse, all evidence of their romantic relationship had to disappear. The _small_ town of Smallville wouldn't accept the two women for who they were, so they kept quiet.

In the beginning of the relationship Martha had lived in Metropolis, a larger, more progressive city. It was almost nothing like Smallville. They would have been comfortable there. Instead, Sarah had to take on the farm which had been in the Kent family for generations, lest she be disowned by her loved ones. And for some reason, Martha stayed with her the whole way. And during that journey, hiding their amazing relationship was probably the hardest part. Not being able to hold hands in public, not being able to admit their love for each other, and no romantic dates at their favorite restaurant in Smallville. Worst of all, Sarah couldn't get Martha the flowers that she really wanted.

"Sarah, I told you that I just want to-" 

"Just one more stop ok?"

Martha rolled her eyes and huffed while sinking into the car seat, "Fine, I just want to be out of here before the traffic."

"Ok hon." Sarah pulled up to The Lone Arranger. "End of the world flowers," Sarah questioned with a big grin on her face.

There were a few finite things that Sarah had been able to pick up on in their relationship together and one of them was that Martha Davis _loved_ flowers. However, what she did not love, was the man selling the flowers always hitting on the both of them.

"The world is not going to end,” she groaned, “But since you're offering, I'll accept." 

Sarah pulled up to the store and both women got out of the truck. "I know, I know. I just think that the _table needs a new centerpiece_." she smiled warmly at Martha. Too warmly, in fact. Martha elbowed her in the side reminding her of what was at stake. Sarah soon sobered up.

_DING_

"Well if it isn't Smallville's two favorite ladies! What can I get for you two dolls today?"

Although Sarah couldn't see it, she knew that Martha's eye just twitched. Martha _hated_ being called “doll” by anyone that wasn't Sarah.

"Oh Harvey you're flattering me. Sarah and I were just looking for some pink Gardenias, purple Valerians, and yellow Roses for a new centerpiece on the dining table," Martha said, playing along.

"Huh, that's weird. I’d’ve had you pegged you for a pastel Carnation girl," he stated while looking very confused.

Sarah came up to the counter to join Martha with the same amount of fake enthusiasm, "Nope!" 

"Ok then, comin’ right up." Harvey turned away and started to put the order together.

Martha, who was totally wound up by the conversation, looked to her left. She noticed a little girl, Lana, in a fairy princess costume.

"Hi! I'm a fairy princess," she scream-talked, "I can grant wishes!"

Martha beamed and moved closer to the small child, "Can I have a wish?"

"Yeah," Lana screamed. She haphazardly bonked Martha on the head with her wand, "There you go!"

Martha laughed and stood back up, "Why thank you, young lady."

"You're welcome!"

"Alright ladies, here's yer order!"

All attention turned to Harvey. "Ok, thanks," Sarah said, picking up the flowers.

Both Sarah and Martha made a hasty exit to the truck. Being around Harvey was always soul-sucking because it reminded them of what they couldn't openly display.

After getting in the truck and driving for a bit, the partners were on the highway. Sarah was itching to have a conversation about what the hell went on at the florist's. Her hands gripped the steering wheel in anticipation.

"I think I know what you wished for."

"Enlighten me, what did I wish for?"

Sarah scoffed, "Aw, c'mon Martha, I saw the way you were looking at Lana. I'm not stupid. You know that's not possible here."

"And? That doesn't keep me from wanting it. I know that we aren't the perfect heterosexual couple that everyone wants us to be, but damn it I want to raise a kid!"

"HOLY SH-"

There was a loud crash and the truck got flipped over. "HONEY ARE YOU OK," Sarah shouted.

"Yes I'm fine," Martha winced, "You don't have to be so loud."

As they both disentangled themselves from the vehicle, a small and very naked child walked over to the wreck. Sarah, who was previously trying to make sure Martha was uninjured, was directed by Martha to wrap up the kid in a blanket from the back of the truck and carry it towards the other wreckage. What they saw at the end of the trench was something that would change their lives forever.

"I think E.T. is a long way from home, don't you think Martha," the dirty blonde joked.

"This isn't funny Sarah," Martha croaked, looking at the spaceship, "What do we do with her? we can't tell people that we found her in a field! And we certainly can't tell people about this spaceship, the government will take her away and she'll be a science experiment for the rest of her fucking life!"

"Hey! No swearing in front of the baby," Sarah then addressed the baby, "You are a baby right?"

Martha stopped panicking for just a moment and turned back to see her partner bouncing the kid and cooing at her, "Hey Sarah, maybe my wish did come true."

"You know what, babe? I think it did." 

...

2014

Clarke's morning routine was not 'just a routine.' No, it was a sacred ritual that she had to complete every step of in order to be fully ready for the day. First it starts with getting dressed, brushing her teeth, and all the other essentials. Then she does her farm chores and rushes to get to the breakfast table. Usually, she would scroll through her twitter feed and eat breakfast, but today was different. This morning she was going to ask Sarah to sign her permission slip to play soccer. Clarke didn't know why she was so nervous, but the butterflies in her stomach said otherwise.

"Whatcha got there, sport," Sarah questioned while she finished cooking her scrambled eggs.

"I want to try out for the soccer team and I need you to si-"

"No." Sarah turned around and dumped the eggs onto a plate with a light scowl on her face.

"Why not?” Clarke questioned, becoming defensive. She took the eggs and began to eat.

Sarah sighed, "Clarke, I love you, but with your special abilities, you put the other players at risk. I won't let that happen."

Clarke sharply inhaled through her nose, swallowed, and spoke, "I'll be careful, you know that I can be careful."

"I know honey," Sarah exhaled, beginning to prepare herself a coffee, " But there are always accidents that are waiting to happen. I don't want people to find out about your secret."

"And why would that be such a bad thing?"

"Why?” Sarah asked, pouring her joe. “Because the government will take you away and I will never see my daughter again. Just please, ride out the rest of high school, and then you can do what you want." She slammed the coffee pot back into the machine.

"I just don't want to go through high school being a nerd," Clarke huffed. 

"Besides, the bus is here." Sarah pointed out the window, mug in hand.

Clarke looked outside the window, and sure enough, the bus was sitting there. She grabbed her permission slip and rushed outside, only to be left in the dust. She could imagine the money exchanging between the hands of her two best friends, Cole and Paige. Their bets were never mean spirited, hell sometimes even she got in on it, but today they bet on Clarke missing the bus.

Not knowing what else to do, Clarke put in her earbuds and super sped to school through the cornfield where no one could see her. She almost liked missing the bus. It gave her the chance to get rid of all her excess energy that doing farm chores usually didn't take care of.

She beat the bus to school.

...

Paige wasn't a huge fan of dances. If she learned anything from middle school, it was that dances are ASS (Awkward, Scary, Stupid). However, she figured since it was the group's freshmen year of high school, they should go. No matter how ASS the dance will be.

"Hey Cole, are you going to the homecoming dance?" Paige asked while walking to the building with him.

He raised his brow, "No, are you asking as a date?"

Paige barked out a laugh, "No, I think that you, Clarke, and me should go as a group."

"What about the dance?"

Paige screamed.

"Clarke, my dude, you can NOT just sneak up like that. You're going to give someone a heart attack," Paige fumed.

"Dude, how the hell did you beat us to school?" Cole squawked.

Clarke shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I'm a really fast runner... and I took a shortcut."

"With a portal gun?"

"Cole," Paige dismissed him, "Cool it with the questions. Clarke and I need to talk about our plan to be popular in high school."

Cole smirked, "Oh? And what is that?"

Paige's chest puffed up with pride, "Clarkie and I are going to be trying out for the soccer team."

Cole looked at Clarke to confirm that he did just hear those words come out of her mouth. Clarke meekly confirmed it, "Sorry Paige, I might have to bail on this one. I don't think it's a great idea anymore."

"So you were just going to throw yourselves at the jocks and see what sticks? That sounds like a great plan," he said pointedly. Clarke could tell he was clearly amused by this thought.

Paige grabbed his shoulder and dragged him to a quiet area near the wall, "Clarke and I are not going to be the scarecrow this year."

"What's the scarecrow," Cole asked.

"Every year before the homecoming game, the jocks get together and grab a freshman to hang like a scarecrow in Riley field after stripping them down to their underwear and painting an S on their chest."

"Paige, that sounds... awful. Why haven't the police done anything about it?"

"Nobody's gotten _too_ hurt by it, so they let it slide. We figured they wouldn't choose one of their own," Clarke said, now noticing Lana, "Hey guys, I gotta go."

Did Clarke have somewhere to go? Yes. She had to go talk to Lana Lang, the prettiest girl in school. Not that she was attracted to her or anything, she just wanted to be friends. Nothing more.

Noticing where Clarke was headed, the two buddies began to gamble.

Paige pulls a crumpled five out of her jacket, "He won't last ten seconds."

"Five," Cole bartered, agreeing to the unspoken rules.

Paige started counting, but could only get to five before Clarke tripped on nothing. Her stuff spilled everywhere.

Cole smirked, taking the money out of Paige's hand, "It's a given fact, my dear. Clarke Kent can't get within five feet of Lana Lane without becoming a total klutz."

"I'm just trying to have some faith in my girl. When you think she's gonna realize?"

"Paige, I'm not going to bet on this one... but if it were, I would say that she'll realize she has a crush on Lana Lang in a week, if not longer."

...

"Nietzsche," Lana remarked, looking at Clarke's book before returning it to her, "I didn't know you had a dark side, Kent."

Clarke looked at her green necklace with a slight grimace on her face, "Don't we all?"

"I guess," she said while standing up. Clarke was still squatting on the ground. "So what are you, man or superman?"

Clarke shakily laughed, "I haven't figured it out yet."

"Hey babe," Whitney greeted, walking up behind Lana, "Where have you been? I've been searching the whole school. Hey Clarke."

She pecked his lips, "Oh, you know. Around."

"Can you do me a solid and proof my English paper?" Whitney asked. Clarke moved to sit on the fence still in pain, hoping to exit the interaction. "Dude, are you ok? You look like you're dying." Whitney had very little concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Clarke waved him off.

"Ok then." Whitney rested his arm on Lana's shoulders and they walked off together as the bell rang.

...

The former scarecrow looked into the trophy case and saw his former bullies. Rage trembled through his body so much that he’s shaking. He punched the glass case.

...

Lex drove through Smallville listing every single thing he wished he could say right to his father's face. One of them was 'shipping Lex off to Smallville is a bad idea.' Another was ‘you’re a shit excuse for a father.’ He passed what he assumed was Riley field, the stretch of land before his factory.

 _This whole thing is bullshit,_ he thought.

When he arrived at the plant, he crappily parked his car, because let's face it. Who cares about how the plant manager parks? It's not like anyone is going to complain anyway. With a curt, 'thanks, dad,' he walked into the plant.

...

Clarke didn't know why she chose to sit in front of the cheerleaders to see their practice, but she did. She was only there to support Paige and her efforts to get on the soccer team. Having said that, Clarke couldn't find Paige so she started watching the cheerleaders. Well, one cheerleader in particular. Clarke couldn't label how she felt abo-

"Clarke, buddy, earth to Clarke?"

"Yes Paige?"

"How do I look," she asked, her pride hidden by her goalie mask.

Clarke snorted, "Like you belong with the football team on the other side of the field as a tackle dummy. Good luck, I just got a text from my mom. I gotta go dude, sorry."

...

Lex was feeling free, speeding on the highway. So free in fact, when he got a call through his Bluetooth, he paid more attention to that than the road. He hit a roll of barbed wire fencing and popped his front tires, losing control of the vehicle. He tried to scream at the girl standing on the bridge to get out of the way, but it was no use. He hit the girl, killing her. And then he would die too, because now he was underwater, trapped in his car. All because of a phone call.

...

Clarke felt shitty about lying to her friend, but she really wanted to be alone to think about highschool. She knew her parents were trying to look out for her by telling her she couldn't join the soccer team, the idea of being a nerd for the rest of high school was… unappealing. Especially when her abilities made her larger than life. High School was only-

"POP, CRASH"

Clarke was suddenly in the river that she was just looking at. She swam to the surface, only to realize that the driver of the car was still under water. Working quickly, she swam over to the fully submerged car, dragged out the unconscious passenger, and brought him to shore. Realizing that she wouldn't get away with just getting the man out of the water, she performed mouth to mouth. After 20 some odd seconds, the man was alive and breathing.

"I-I thought I hit you," he croaked.

"If you did," Clarke started, "I would be dead."

After he tried to find his dignity, the man introduced himself as Lex Luthor. As soon as the words left his mouth, Clarke knew his moms were going to be pissed. They hated the Luthors, with good reason too. Not that Clarke ever asked, they just made comments whenever they were mentioned on tv.

"I'm going to assume your phone is still in the river," Lex said, "That's ok, my car sends an alert to the nearest 911 dispatch service with coordinates as soon as it detects an impact. You can call your parents then."

Clarke nodded. They waited and made the most awkward 'sorry I almost hit you with my expensive car' small talk ever.

...

"CLARKE," Sarah yelled as she ran towards her daughter after she got out of the car, "ARE YOU OK?"

"Yeah Mom," Clarke answered, wrapping the shock blanket around herself even tighter. 

"Who hit you?"

Lex walked over after talking to an officer. "That would be me. You have one fine daughter, Ms. Kent. Not like FINE fine, but..." Lex could sense he wasn't going to recover from that fumble, "How can I repay your family?"

Sarah stared daggers at him. If looks could kill...

"Drive slower, and maybe your Daddy won't have to come bail you out next time." Sarah grabbed Clarke and guided her to the car.

...

Clarke shouldn't be doing this. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, and yet here she is. Doing this. What is this? This is using her telescope to spy on the neighbor across the street. Who is the neighbor? If you guessed Lana Lang, you get a prize. She was talking with her boyfriend, but unfortunately, one of Clarke's abilities wasn't super hearing. She was stuck with trying to read their lips instead.

...

"Whit, you should really go," Lana whispered yearningly, "My uncle's going to be back soon and if you're here, there's going to be hell to pay."

"Aw, c'mon babe," he whined indignantly, "Where is the guy anyway? Is he bowling?"

Lana rolled her eyes, "No, dummy, he's at Lex Luthor's. They're closing a business deal."

"Wait," Whitney paused, "The Luthors own the Metropolis sharks, maybe they can put a good word in."

"My uncle's not the one you want to talk to about that," she informed, "Clarke saved Lex Luthor's life today. Pulled him out of the river."

Whitney sucked in a breath. He rarely (if ever) felt pity for someone else, but if there was a time for it, it was probably now. "Yeah, I saw on Twitter. Can you believe people are saying that Clarke shouldn't have saved him? The #betteroffdead was trending on Moments today."

"Enough about Lex," she digressed, "You need to rest up for tomorrow's practice."

"Hey, uh," Whitney stumbled, unsure of himself, "Coach said that there's going to be a scout from Kansas State at the homecoming game on Saturday. This could be my chance to make a name for myself. To be known outside of Smallville. I really want to do well and..."

Lana smiled, "Do you want a good luck charm?"

He nodded, "I know it sounds lame, but I want a piece of you _right there_ when I make the final winning touchdown."

Lana giggled, "Well, who am I to deny that?" She took off her necklace and handed it to Whitney. 

"Lana... I can't take this,” he wrapped his hand around hers, necklace inside. He pushed it back to her.

"Why not, Whit?" her eyes shone like beacons, bright and warm with trust and optimism.

"This is too..." Whitney’s wide eyes locked onto Lana’s. The words forming in his throat died.

"You can give it back to me after you win the game, dummy." Lana's smile is brighter than the sun.

"Is it really made from the meteor that..."

Her smile softens, "Yeah, Harvey had it made for me a few years ago. There are so many bad memories in that necklace, I think it's high time that I put some good ones in it."

Whitney's lips move forward to press on to Lana's. She accepts the kiss, melting into her boyfriend’s embrace.

...

Clarke looks away from the telescope, witnessing the entire conversation, but not knowing a word of what was just said. Knowing that she just saw a _very_ intimate exchange between two lovers made her feel really dirty.

...

The mechanic had no clue what was coming.

"Hey, weren't you the scarecrow kid," he smiled, "where the hell you been buddy?" The boy wasted no time and exacted his revenge.

...

Clarke's eyes almost fell out of their sockets when she saw what was sitting in the driveway. It was a brand new red truck. As she walked closer, she noticed a blue bow sitting on the hood.

"Hey mom," Clarke yelled, "whose truck is that?"

Her mom, getting off the tractor, handed her a card, "It's from Lex." 

Clarke briefly read the note, still in shock and awe. "Who has the keys?"

Martha quickly took the note from her daughter’s hands, giving her a stern and knowing glance. "Sarah does. She's in the barn." Her mother walked away, leaving Clarke’s excitement to dissipate into disappointment.

Clarke knew, the moment she said that, she would have to return it. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, Sarah was right.

She walked toward the barn, trying to think of something, literally anything, that would convince Sarah to let her keep the truck. Deep down though, she knew it would be a fruitless effort. Sarah Kent did not take gifts from Luthors, and that was that.

She could hear the wood chipper before she got to the barn. When Sarah noticed her, she turned off the chipper and took off her PPE.

"Listen kid," Sarah said sympathetically, "I know you want that truck, hell I want that truck. We can't keep it." 

"Why not? I saved Lex's life."

"Oh," Sarah became sarcastic, "So you deserve a prize?" 

Clarke stood back, shaking her head. "No, that's..."

"But that's exactly what you're saying hon. You shouldn't be encouraged by rewards to do good things for other people. It's gotta go."

"It's not like the Luthors can't afford it!"

"Hon, I know you're upset, but this is norm-"

"NORMAL," Clarke shouts, "NORMAL? IS THIS NORMAL?"

She stalked over to the wood chipper, turned it on, and stuck her whole arm into the machine. But instead of ripping the appendage to shreds, she damaged the machine beyond repair. And when she pulled her hand out? It was completely fine.

"I didn't dive in after Lex's car, Mom. He hit me at 60 miles an hour. Is that normal for you? I would give up so many things to be normal." Clarke stalked past Sarah to go to her loft.

Martha, emerged from the side of the barn. Her eyes, tender yet stern, locked with Sarah’s. She nodded toward her lover, before looking back down at the ruined machine and sighing. She knew what she had to do.

...

Sarah walked up to the loft with a hunk of metal burning in her pocket. This metal was the key to Clarke's origin.

"Hon," she said, Clarke acted like she wasn't paying attention, "I have something here that belonged to your birth parents."

That piqued Clarke's interest and she turned to face her mother, "What is it?"

Sarah took out the metal and handed it to Clarke, "I don't know Clarke, maybe you can figure it out. I've tried to translate whatever language is on there, but so far, no luck. It's totally unlike anything that has been seen on earth."

"Mom, I swear to fucking god, this is the worst time to pull a prank on me. Why the hell would you tell me that I'm an ali-"

"Follow me," she commanded, "I have something else to show you."

...

"So I'm really Marvin the Martian? Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because Clarke, we couldn't risk you telling other kids, you know how they don't have filters. We didn't want anyone to take you away from us..."

"YOU STILL SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME," Clarke screamed and super sped away.

...

"Clarke, what the heck are you doing out in the middle of the woods?"

Clarke moved to stand in front of a grave angel, her face stricken with tears, "Trust me, Lana, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you. I'll go now."

"No, Clarke, it's ok," Lana said softly, "I was just expecting to be alone. Are you ok?" 

Clarke laughed meekly, "I'm hanging around a graveyard, that seem ok to you?" 

"I'm here too, dummy."

"Fair point," Clarke sniffed and wiped a tear away, "So what's your excuse?"

"Are you good at keeping secrets," Lana whispered innocently.

"I am the wikileaks of secrets," Clarke whispered back jokingly.

Lana giggled and lightly hit Clarke's bicep, "I regularly visit my parent's grave to talk to them, do you want to meet them? I promise it won't be weird." She motioned to the flowers in her hands.

Clarke had always known of Lana's parents passing, she always posts anniversary pictures on social media. She just had no idea how close Lana really was with her parents.

"No, it totally won't be weird. Yes, I would love to," Clarke smiled. "When did they pass?" 

Lana looked at the ground. Her smile, although sad, melted Clarke’s heart, "They passed when I was three."

Clarke laid one of her hands on her shoulders, "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Lana consoled, wiping the hand off her shoulder, "you didn't do anything. Let's go, I'll introduce you."

They both walked over to the double grave.

"Mom, Dad, this is Clarke Kent. Say Hi," she knelt down. 

Following her direction, Clarke also knelt. "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Lang."

There was a moment of silence. "Yeah, she is kind of shy," she put flowers down and paused, "How should I know?" She turns to Clarke, "Dad wants to know if you're having boy problems."

She smirked, "No, sir."

Lana laughs and kind of rolls her eyes, "Mom wants to know if you're having girl problems."

That made her a little tense, "No ma'am, definitely not."

Lana chuckled, "She's got a weird sense of humor. But seriously, you have to tell me why you're out here, Clarke."

"Lana, have you ever felt like you were forced onto an alternate path in life?"

"Oh, I know it all too well. Sometimes, I have this dream where my uncle is supposed to pick me up from school. Instead, my parents come, and they're just really late. And we drive back to our apartment in Metropolis. We have fun, just like old times. And then, I wake up. For a brief second, I'm happy. Until I realize they're still gone."

There's a moment of silence between the two teens.

Clarke broke it first, her attention turning toward the grave, "What's that Mrs. Lang? Ok, I'll let her know." she turned her attention to Lana, "Your mom wants me to tell you that no matter what, Lana, you are not alone." She pretended to hear something else from the grave, "What's that Mr. Lang? Ok, I'll tell her," she turned to Lana again, grabbing her hand and squeezing, "He says you're a shoo-in for homecoming queen."

Both girls laughed.

"Did they really say that Clarke?" Lana's eyes shone brighter than the sun.

"Oh, yeah," she exaggerated, "Once they start talking they just can't stop." She smiled.

...

Clarke didn't know why, but she felt like she had to walk Lana home.

"Thanks for walking me home, Clarke."

"It's really no problem, neither of us should be out walking in the woods anyway." She shoved her hands into her denim jeans.

"I think this is the longest conversation we've ever had, how do you feel?"

Clarke chuckled, "I feel like I want to do this again. Maybe not in the woods. I did like meeting your parents though. Are you going to the dance?"

"Yeah, with Whitney."

Clarke didn't know why that sentence hurt, but it did. "Right, of course, obviously," she laughed in a totally not bitter manner, "he's your boyfriend."

"I'll still dance to a few songs with your group though. I'm assuming you're going with a group?"

"Yeah, Cole and Paige."

"Cool, then I'll see you there," she hugs Clarke and walks back to her house.

Little did the girls know, Whitney watched the whole interaction, trying to figure out what kind of bond the two had.

...

Clarke was returning the truck to Lex and so far, it wasn't easy. First she'd had to get rejected at the gate by security, then she climbed over the wall (like a normal human), and had to break in. Coming up with excuses for the busted doorknobs wouldn't be easy, but it had to be done. After wandering the halls, Clarke happened upon an invigorating fencing match in which one of the fencers threw their rapier a little bit to the right of her head, impaling it in the wall. The offending fencer took off their mask.

"Oh, sorry Clarke. It's kind of hard to see under this thing," Lex apologized.

"Hey man, if you're busy..." she raised her hands in submission and started to walk backwards out of the room.

"Nonsense, Lauren here was just getting done with kicking my ass, weren't you?" The woman let out a sharp laugh before nodding. She gathered her things and left, sending a final wave toward the two. He beckoned her to follow him and led the conversation into what she assumed was his temporary office. "So, how are the new wheels treating you?"

"Oh, the wheels? They're great, I just have to uh, give them back. My mom doesn't want me to have them." She looked at her feet, regretting her decision to go to the mansion. 

_Ditching the truck in the woods sounded stupid before,_ she thought, _but now..._

He scoffed, "Is it because she doesn't like me?" 

"More or less, yeah," she shrugged.

Her friend gazed into the mirror at his own reflection. "I long for the day that I will be judged entirely by my own actions, not by the baldness of my own head." 

"It's not you specifically, nor the baldness," she tried to comfort, "She just doesn't like..." 

"My dad."

"Yeah." Her lips pursed together.

"That's understandable." Lex turned to her.

"Hey, I gotta go, thanks for the truck though," she stretched out her hand and gave the keys to the youngest Luthor. He took them.

Just before she could leave, he asked, "Clarke, do you believe a man can fly?" 

She shook her head no and disappeared behind the door.

...

"I just think it's weird that all of the people who are dying are jocks, Paige."

"Hey Cole, take a picture of that weird guy over there."

Cole obediently snaps the picture.

...

"So our mystery man is Jeremy Creek," Cole stated, staring at the computer screen. "He was supposed to graduate with the class of 2006, but ended up going to the hospital after being directly exposed to the meteor shower while being the scarecrow."

"Wait, Cole, how did you find this out?" Clarke questioned.

"Well, if you look at his yearbook photo," he pointed, "And this photo I took a few hours ago," he pointed at his cell phone screen, "They're identical."

"But that's impossible Cole, he'd be 26," Clarke said.

"Cole," Paige murmured, "I think it's time."

"Time for what?" She looked at Cole a little incredulously. 

He sighed, "I think it's high time you saw the Wall of Weird." 

...

"Guys, what are we doing in this..." Clarke's jaw dropped when she saw the wall.

"This is the physical manifestation of the Wall of Weird. We also have a digital version that has a lot more information." Cole was already sitting at the computer when she turned back to him. Clarke didn't know what to do. It seemed like Cole was already so close to finding out her newly known secret.

"I think that all the weird stuff in Smallville started happening because of the meteor shower. Here, take a look at this," Cole opened a video file and played it.

The video was of the meteor shower in town. Clarke could only see chaos and the date the video was taken. A scream from the video distracted her from her thoughts. It was a child screaming for her parents. An explosion burst in the left corner of the screen and the parents were no longer standing there. The camera turned and Clarke saw something that made her heart drop into her stomach. It was Harvey, holding a sobbing Lana.

Clarke had to leave. She had to tell her moms, Lana, a therapist, someone, that she had killed someone's parents. She made a hasty exit, leaving Cole and Paige to figure out what the hell just happened.

...

She paid no mind to the group of rowdy teens that were exiting the school with her. They tried to rile her up for the homecoming game, but when she turned to look at them they got the message and left her alone. Clarke reached the parking lot when she felt a hand come down on her shoulder.

"Cole, Paige," she sighed, "I just need to be alone right now..."

The hand spun her around and grabbed the front of her shirt. It was too late now to realize that the hand belonged to Whitney Fordman, Smallville High's favorite jock. "Congrats Kent, you have the honor of being this year's scarecrow."

Clarke regained her composure quickly and pushed herself out of his grasp, "Stop messing with me."

That was not the right thing to do. She accidentally just fanned the flames of the proverbial fire. The football player shed his coat and held himself in a fighting stance, challenging her. It was obvious from her perspective that her opponent wouldn't back down without a fight. So she threw the first punch. And because Clarke has such great luck, she missed. The front of his shirt was now opened slightly at the top, revealing Lana's necklace. She immediately felt like all of the energy in her body was siphoned out of her.

Whitney grabbed her and threw her on the ground, following to lift her closer to him by the collar. "What the hell is goin' on between you and my girl, Kent?"

"Nothing, I swear," she growled.

She looked at the necklace and it gave her attacker an idea. "Like this necklace? It's Lana's. You might as well wear it, it's the closest you're ever going to get to her," Whitney sneered, putting the necklace on Clarke.

She mostly blanked out from pain after that. 

...

Jeremy felt sorry for the girl. She didn't deserve this. In reality, nobody did. He saw the car drive away, wishing he could have done something before. Though with his plan, the girl was safer tied up in Riley field.

...

Clarke was unceremoniously thrown from the back of the truck. She opened her eyes and was greeted with the sight of her attacker.

“Clarke I gotta say,” Whitney gowled, “this is wayyyy more interesting than last year. Dooley wasn’t nearly as… curvy.” He smiled menacingly. 

“I swear to god Fordman,” she snarled. Two football players came up behind her and ripped her flannel off. Buttons went flying, she could see her shirt land in front of her. _At least it was a junk shirt._ “If you or your boys…”

“Aww c’mon Clarkie what do you take us for, brutes?” he questioned, his voice distorted with malice.

Her pants were pulled off, “By the way you’re treating me, yes, actually!”

Suddenly, he started laughing. It was really disturbing to see him go from a vicious asshole to laughing like a little schoolboy. He laughed so hard, tears were coming out of his eyes. “Wow Clarke, I didn’t expect much from you, but,” he wiped the tears from his eyes, “Boxers? Really?”

She spat in his face, “It’s not like I have someone to wear them for.”

He slapped her. “Don’t flatter yourself, Clarkie. I don’t need to sink my dick into you when I have Lana waiting for me right across the street from your pathetic cow shit dyke shack.” Then, he went in for the kill, taking off her undershirt. “Aww, Clarkie that’s so adorable, you wore this little training bra just for me?” His facial expression contorted into mock shock, his eyes flickering between her bra and boxers, “Oh my god Kent, you even wore a matching set for me. I’ll have you know that I’m just flattered.”

“Oh fuck off Whitney, you know-” She started spitting.

“Relax Clarkie, it’s just some equal opportunity bullying, right boys?” He looked at his cronies; they all nodded agreeing with him. “Hang her up boys, it's time Smallville got its first female scarecrow.”

They did as directed and to put a cherry on top of this shit sundae, Whitney sprayed the S on her chest, snapped a few pictures, and slapped her on the ass.

Clarke grimaced. She wanted to do something, anything to escape this torment. The way they had been treating her was incredibly brutal, but she couldn’t take the way he was treating Lana, or his speculation on the true dynamics of the Kent household.

“Hey Clarke, you might want to check 4chan tomorrow, you might find yourself on the front page.”

...

Clarke had been hanging from the post for hours. The pain from the meteor rock dulled from what it was before, but she wasn't sure if it was because she's been wearing it for so long or the ache in her arms and legs was finally catching up to her. Then she heard the ruffling of some corn stalks. Someone was approaching.

"Well, I guess some things do change don't they? Back in my day, they never would have picked a girl," Jeremy glowered, stalking up to the pole and pacing in front of her, "It hurts, doesn't it? Being the scarecrow, I mean. The other stuff those assholes did to you was... unforgivable."

"Jeremy," she shuddered from the cold, she could see her own breath, "Man, this isn't you. Help me down and we can get you some help, ok?"

"Help? Me?" He scoffed hotly, "The only people who need help are the ones that did this to you." 

"What are you going to do man? Jeremy, I heard about what you did to those guys..."

"THEY DESERVED IT! HOW CAN YOU SAY THEY DIDN'T DESERVE IT? ESPECIALLY AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO YOU! THEY DESERVE TO FRY!"

Clarke felt like she was the hostage and hostage negotiator. "What’s your plan?"

"Let’s just say sparks are going to fly at the dance," he said, his voice devoid of any emotion. Jeremy turned and walked away, "You'll be safe here."

She began to panic, "Jeremy, there are so many innocent students there, are you willing to sacrifice all the students who didn't do anything?”

But it was too late, the man was gone.

A minute later she heard the squealing of tires and a car door opening. So she screamed for help. And if there was one person who she didn't want to see like this besides Lana Lang, it was...

"Clarke?" A confused Lex Luthor emerged from the corn.

Clarke would have rather taken death at this point.

"Present and accounted for," she lifted her head, her long black hair falling to the sides revealing her now sickly pale face.

Lex practically jumped, "Oh my god, Clarke what the hell happened?" He ran behind her to safely get her down.

"I got the honor of bein' the scarecrow this year, Lex," she said, trying to coolly play it off. She really didn't want him to pity her.

He made quick work of the knots holding her up, but didn't realize how weak she would be when there was nothing tying her to the pole. She fell to the ground and the necklace came away from her neck during the fall. Clarke immediately stood up to look for her clothes. Lex had a little bit more time to look around and realized whoever did this to his friend had her clothes. He shed his jacket and held it out to her, only looking at her to check her body for any physical injuries. She didn't notice, so he coughed to get her attention.

She turned, "Oh, thanks, but no, they left my clothes around here somewhere. Thank god they left my phone." Clarke picked it up and went back to looking.

After about 15 seconds, she realized this was getting really awkward. Even if they were friends, it was really inappropriate to be nearly naked in front of a 21 year old man. She turned to him with a 'what can you do' face. He simply held out the coat, head turned.

Her dignity was still totally intact.

"Ok," he gently grabbed her shoulders, trying to lead her back to his car, "It's time to get you home."

She jerked away from his gentle grasp and reassured him. "Lex, dude, I'm fine. I can just walk home."

He looked at her quizzically, almost as if to say, "In that outfit?"

She rolled her eyes at him, "I'll stay in the cornfield. I happen to know that I can get to my house without being seen."

"Are you sure? I can..."

"LEX, I'm not a porcelain doll. I can take a beating and get back up," she spat. Clarke didn't want to be mean, but she had to remember that time was of the essence. She stalked away and he didn't follow.

As soon as she knew he wouldn't be able to see her, she super sped away to get a change of clothes. It was time for dancing.

...

After Clarke got hit by a car, she decided it was time to go home. Her dress was ruined beyond repair and if anyone had seen her like this and told Lana? She would have been mortified. Since her dress was already torn to shreds, she ripped off the bottom, leaving enough fabric for modesty, and started to run home. She felt a buzz in one of her pockets. It was one of several text notifications.

From Cole: hey dude where the hell are you?

From Paige: Listen, Cole is starting to think you're dead. And if you don't answer me in the next ten minutes, you will be. Cole is close to having a panic attack.

From Paige: You are dead to me >:(. I just had to lie to Cole and tell him that Mrs. Briggs gave us an extra credit paper to write. Better study up on the history of the penny.

From Cole: My bad

She chuckled.

To Paige: I actually like the history of the penny. Thanks for covering.

From Paige: Ass.

She put her phone away and her mind drifted to the exchange Jeremy and her had before he tried to electrocute the school. Was she sent here on a mission to protect people? Or was she here to conquer mankind?

...

When Clarke got home she literally ripped off her dress and threw it in the garage, opting for a t-shirt and a pair of short shorts. Not knowing what else to do, she sunk down into her loveseat in the loft and opened Snapchat. Social media wasn't really her thing unless it was at the breakfast table, but she was curious to see if anything happened at the dance other than her little run-in.

The first snap that came on to her screen was a video of Paige and Cole dancing to _Girls Just want to Have Fun._ They were clearly having the time of their lives and Clarke regretted that she didn't join them for that. In the background, she noticed Lana and her boyfriend, Whitney, sitting together at a table. Why was she so jealous of W-

"Hey Clarke, I tried to look for you at the dance, but your friends said you weren't there," Lana appeared at the top of the loft. "They said something about pennies."

Clarke's mouth went dry, the grainy video on Snapchat didn't do Lana justice. She looked like a goddess among mortals. "Uh, yeah, Mrs. Briggs gave me an extra credit assignment that I had to work on. I finished it though."

"The DJ played _Girls Just Want to Have Fun,"_ Lana smiled, "I wanted to dance with you..." she trailed off. "I don't know if you want to have fun, but," she pulls out her phone, hits play, and sets it on the coffee table, "I do."

Lana grabbed Clarke's hands and helped the other girl off the couch. She led Clarke's hands to her waist and set them there while she rested her arms on her shoulders. They both began to sway to the slow music, sharing this tender moment together.

Lana accidentally stumbled over the other girl’s feet, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Are you ok?" 

Clarke laughed, "yeah."

The thing is, if any other person were in her place right now, that would have hurt like a mother fucker.

Suddenly a scream pierced through the air, ruining the moment. Ruining Lana.

Clarke turned around to look out the window, just in time to see the real Lana waving goodbye to her friends.

  
  
  



	2. Metamorphosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Um, wow, a second chapter! *claps*  
> Sorry if some of the scenes are short. Realistically, if I wrote out every scene, I would be doing this for the rest of my life.  
> Please leave a comment!  
> Also, this chapter was posted without being beta'd, I was... a little too excited. I can't wait for X-Ray though! That shit is gonna be wild.  
> This is the second edit! Still unbeta'd. 5/29  
> -Chole  
> The next chapter will come! But it will look a little different. 6/10

A boy is up in the tree, looking at his phone. He’s checking the footage he took of Lana Lang’s room. She was getting undressed, until she saw the beautifully wrapped box sitting on her bed. Her hands almost trembled when she opened it. When it did, glowing butterflies came out. He thought it was the perfect gift for a girl like her. He saw her face light up with a huge smile. His job was done. Walking back to his lime green Volkswagen Bug, he wondered if she knew the butterflies were from him.

…

When he came home, his mother was looking through one of the flash drives he had stupidly left out. A video was playing on her laptop, the one from a few days ago when Lana went to the park, he remembered fondly. She turned around from her computer as soon as she heard him.

“Greg,” she was exasperated. She had no idea what to do. Sure, her son was a little… weird, but she didn’t know this boy. The boy who video taped girls. God only knows what’s on the rest of that drive. Her voice was level and she took out the flash drive and held it up for her son to see. “I am going to destroy this, and you are going to go and tell the Langs exactly what you’ve been up to. You hear me?”

“Mom…” the boy could sense that this unique hobby wasn’t going to be taken lightly like his live bug collection was.

She saw red. “GREGORY FRANCIS ARKIN, I HAVE PUT UP WITH SO MUCH TO TRY TO RAISE YOU, BUT GUESS WHAT? NOW, I’M DONE. I’M NOT PUTTING UP WITH IT ANYMORE. I WANT THOSE BUGS GONE!”

He ran before she could finish her rant. He got his bugs and put them in his car. He slammed the door closed and hightailed out of there, driving so fast, he hit a bump in the road. 

All of his bugs got loose and he got swarmed.

# …

She was floating. She was in Lana’s room and she was floating. Right below her, lay the most beautiful girl in school, fast asleep, unaware.

Then, she awoke. “I wanted to be with you Clarke, it’s too bad I’ll never get over you murdering my parents,” she smiled.

Clarke was stunned by this. How did she know she was the one responsible? Was she going to tell the wor-

“CLARKE!”

_CRASH_

Holy shit. So it was only partially a dream. She was actually 5 feet above her bed! Wait a minute, did she just have a wet dream about _the_ Lana Lang? The one who was dating the school’s prized perpetrator. This doesn’t make any-

“CLARKE,” Martha screamed, “Are you ok up there?”

She groaned, “Yes mom.”

“GREAT,” she yelled up the stairs, “WE LEAVE IN 15 TO GO TO THE FARMERS’ MARKET AND YOU STILL HAVE CHORES TO DO.”

Clarke’s head hit the pillow again, wondering why she had to be woken up from _that_ dream.

“UP.”

…

The farmer’s market was peaceful. Local artists selling their wares, farmers selling their crop, and even the occasional kids’ entertainer. People were milling around, there was no reason to rush. However, the farmers’ market had just begun, so chaos was on its way by now.

Clarke picked up the stall sign for the family’s stall and carefully nailed it into the wooden post with her thumb when no one was looking. She looked over at Cole and Paige helping her family set up the stall. _They look cute together_ , she mused to herself, _it’s really a wonder they haven’t gotten together yet._ Cole then noticed her staring weirdly at the both of them and gave her a look. Then, something caught his eye.

“Hey,” he bellowed, “If it isn’t Smallville High’s very own homecoming king and his queen!”

 _Oh, so it was Lana and Whitney_ , she thought, _what a surprise_.

They both looked over and Lana noticed her standing near the stall. She walked up to her with an _almost suave_ looking Whitney. “Clarke what’s up?” she asked, “I didn’t see you at the dance last night.”

She almost blew a gasket. Of fucking course he didn’t tell Lana. She’d break up with him. His eyes pleaded with her to not say anything. She tilted her head and looked at the _predator_ behind the girl standing in front of her, “I, uh, got tied up in some stuff late last night.”

Thankfully Lana picked up on it and looked at her boyfriend to question him.

“That was one hell of a game last night, Whitney,” Sarah remarked, walking up to the three.

Finally seeing her exit, Clarke took it. “I’ll go get the rest of the boxes.”

While she was walking away towards the truck, she could faintly hear Whitney tell Lana and Sarah that he was going to help her. _Great_ , she thought, _what does this asshole want now?_

“You know last night was a joke right,” he asked with an almost worried expression on his face.

She huffed at that. “Oh yeah, which part? The one where you kidnapped me from school, or the one where you stripped me to my undies and hung me up like a scarecrow, ‘cause buddy, I was laughin’ the whole damn way!”

He looked back at his beautiful girlfirend and waved as he walked away with Clarke, “Shh, please keep your voice down, I really don’t want her to hear this.”

She lowered her voice for Lana’s sake. If she heard any of this, it would destroy her. “And why should I? Then your girlfriend won’t know _about how_ progressive you are with…” she pretends to think, “Equal opportunity bullying, that’s what you called it right?”

“Look I know I was being kind of an assh-“

She barked out a hearty laugh, “That’s the understatement of the century, I’ll give you one more try Fordman and maybe if you get it right, then I won’t tell your girlfriend. I’ll even give you a hint, it starts with d, ends with k, and has four letters.”

“Clarke,” he sighed, totally decompressing, “Me being a dick shouldn’t affect her, do you have that necklace that I put on your neck? It’s really important to her.”

How she didn’t punch him right then and there will be a mystery never solved. “You’re right! It shouldn’t,” Clarke checks her watch, “I’d say that you have about ten hours left of sunlight to find the necklace, try checking the area where you last saw it. For you,” -she pointed at him with both hands- “the last place was probably on the neck of some innocent teenage girl that you stripped down to her underwear.”

She put on a sickeningly sweet smile, grabbed a box of produce, and walked away.

# …

 _That fucking creep better stay the hell away from Lana,_ Whitney thought he walked away from telling Greg off. _Why the hell was she even talking to him anyway?_

…

Clarke was standing at the produce truck looking at Lana, who was saying goodbye to her boyfriend, thinking about the dream she’d had this morning. Why was she in Lana’s bedroom? And what did ‘she’ mean by “wanting to be with you?” Surely, it couldn’t have been romantic, right?

“Didn’t know you played for the other team, Clarke,” Lex said smoothly, startling her.

No, there was no way that Clarke Kent had a crush on Lana Lang. Not now, not ever. She was straighter than a wooden board. “Uh, first of all, you can’t just sneak up on people like that, it’s rude. Second of all, no, no romantic things going on in here,” she pointed at her head and awkwardly laughed.

He could see that she didn’t know yet, so he didn’t push. Not too hard at least. Then he went into big brother mode. “So… last night.”

Her eye visibly twitched. “Yeah?”

“Come on, Clarke,” he pleaded, “Don’t act cold with me. You know what he did to you was a crime and you should get justice. You could have died.”

She leaned against the truck, turning to him, “And I didn’t? I’m just fine.”

He leaned and turned too. “And you didn’t? Clarke, he stripped you and tied you to a pole. Even the Romans saved that one for a special occasion.”

She laughed and picked up a box of produce, motioning for him to follow her. “Yeah dude, it was. Didn’t you hear? Homecoming happened last night.”

“Dude…,” he was unimpressed, “That is totally not what I mean, and you know it.”

“Listen, I just want to forget it happened ok?”

…

And then, for some reason, Clarke used her abilities to save Whitney Fucking Fordman from a car crash. She risked her secret _on_ Smallville high’s best jock, also known as her assailant.

…

Clarke was looking out past the field when she heard Sarah step out onto the porch of the small town house. “Did he remember anything?”

“No.” Sarah walked over to stand next to her ‘adopted’ daughter and also look out at the field. “He has some minor cuts and bruises, thanks to you.”

She fished her tongue over her lip in annoyance. “Kinda wished it was more,” she muttered.

Sarah was stunned. She turned her head to look at Clarke, “What?”

“It’s nothing Ma,” she said, “Whitney did some stuff at school and I wish karma finished its job _._ ”

“Honey, I’m sure what he did doesn’t deserve-,”

Clarke huffed, “Ma, I don’t want to talk about it ok? Besides, I had a really weird dream last night.”

She could detect the edge in her daughter’s voice from about a hundred miles away, so she figured it would be best to leave it alone. “Ok, what happened?”

“I was… in my bedroom,” she started, “And I was floating. Right above my bed.”

“That doesn’t seem like a very odd dream to me,” she said, feigning confusion, “People can augment their reality in dreams all the time.”

Clarke rolled her eyes. “When Mom woke me up, I broke my bed frame because I fell on top of it.”

There was a pregnant pause. “It really is that time, huh?” Sarah sighed. She knew it had to come eventually. And hopefully it would be normal, but because Life sucks, Life made Clarke’s hard to grow up.

“What time, Mom?” Now, it was Clarke that was confused.

“The talk,” she said, “The birds and the bees and the flowers…”

A light bulb went off in her head and things got… awkward. Yeah, that was the right word, awkward. “Oh no, god no, Ma, I have the internet to do that.”

Sarah let out the deep breath she’d been holding in. “Oh thank god,” she said, “You’re still not off the hook though, you know that right?” Clarke nodded. “Because you have the misfortune of being an alien, there’s a lot of things I don’t know, hon. Puberty is a hard time for a lot of kids, but I have a feeling it’s going to be at least ten times harder for you.” She put her arm around her daughter's shoulders to comfort her.

Clarke put her hand over her mother’s and squeezed before untangling herself from her grip. “Ma, I know what you’re trying to do…,” the human raised alien said, “You’re trying to get me to see the reality of the situation and believe me, I do. But this is happening to me, and no one else except me.” And with that she walked into the house, leaving her mom on the porch.

…

Lex held up the necklace that belonged to Lana. He swiped it after Clarke made her mad dash into the corn after being freed. To be honest, he almost completely forgot about the local high school’s savage traditions. Right up until he saw the figure hung up on that pole.

The next day, he’d gone to the police station and tried to see if there was any evidence of what happened. Of course, there was, but he had to convince the police department to go looking for it. With money. There was a video of the whole attack, right on 4chan. He also had to bribe an officer to copy it onto a CD. It was time to pay Lana Lang a visit.

…

Whenever Lana was riding, she felt… free. There really was no other way to say it. She wasn’t stressing about cheerleading, uncle Harvey, or… Clarke, even. But now that she was thinking about her, it was hard to stop. She told her that she’d be at the dance and never showed. Sure, it hurt her feelings a little, but it’s not like she was going to be able to dance with her the way she wanted to anyways. Two girls slow dancing together at an after-school event? They’d be lucky to even clean out their own lockers before being expelled. Harvey would also kill her for losing her spot on the cheerleading team. She knew that there were other people in town who were queer just like her, the Kent couple, for one. You’d have to be straighter than a metal rod to not see that one coming. She smiled to herself. Sarah is such a romantic and it looks like it hurts her soul to have to hide their relationship in public. The girl could tell because she’s seen Sarah slip up more times than she could count on her fingers and toes. Martha on the other hand, was a completely different story, Lana could only think of a few times when the other Kent almost dropped the veil that hung in front of their relationship.

 _Ugh,_ she thought, _being anything but normal in this town is grounds for social suicide._

She remembered her study session with Greg, so she rode her horse back to the stable. When she got back, the last person she expected to see was examining her trophies. The last time she saw him he was in a bit of a compromising position. 

Lex turned to her, “Hello Lana,” he began and stuck out his hand for her to shake, “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“We’ve met before,” she stated, “Or did you forget?”

He looked into the sky, almost as if the answer was hanging right in front of him. His demeanor was still cool. “I don’t recall,” he said, very confused, “Can you enlighten me?”

“I was at a riding competition,” she recounted while dismounting from her horse, “There just so happened to be a business convention in the same hotel. I went to check out the pool and you were giving her swimming lessons. While naked.”

His face fell, the mask, gone. “Oh my god, I am so sorry that happened, I swear I am not that kind of person any more. But that was you?” he questioned, “You’re so big now!” She chuckled awkwardly and shrugged. He decided to finally talk about what he came here for. “Do you know where _your_ boyfriend was last night before the game?”

“Yeah,” she said, confused, “He was with me? Why?” She took the saddle off of her horse, Secret, and hung it on the rail beside the stall.

“What would you say if I told you that him and the boys did some good old fashioned hazing before the game?”

Her face was set in stone, trying not to give away any emotion. She led her horse into the rented stall. “I would say that you’re wrong.”

“Well, what if I told you I have photographic evidence of this happening?” He grimaced.

Then she left the stall and turned to put the padlock on it, but not before turning to him. “Do you have it with you,” she questioned nervously. Lana really didn’t want this to be true, but Whitney was kind of a dick. Even though he did his damndest to hide it in front of her, she saw so many things and heard many stories.

“Just so you know,” Lex held out the CD, Lana took it, “there’s some pretty graphic stuff on that disc”

“I can handle it, I’m not a baby,” Lana said, feigning ignorance.

She looked at the pictures later and to say that she was sick to her stomach was an understatement.

…

Greg didn’t know why he had to kill his mom, but he had to.

… 

Clarke got the text from Lex about 2 hours ago, apparently he had the necklace that Whitney tortured her with. Formerly known as Lana Lang’s necklace. 

When she arrived at the mansion, Lex seemed almost malevolent. He was normal enough when he greeted her in his office, they made some small talk about the farm. She was careful to keep the conversation away from her parents. 

Then, he picked up a small metal box and asked her to follow him. Their final destination wasn’t far, but she couldn’t help but wonder where he could be taking her. The trip ended abruptly when they reached a room with a giant table. A giant terrain table to be exact, complete with buildings and glass miniatures. If she had to guess, they were set up to reenact a battle from the Trojan war. Clarke didn’t know what his endgame was, but she was starting to think that just maybe, her parents were right about him.

“That’s a pretty cool terrain table you got there,” she said, in shock of the table, “Those minis must have cost you a fortune.”

He smiled, “Yeah, they cost my old man a fortune. It was a present from him, he wanted me to ‘learn the ways of war’ or something like that.”

She looked at the man to see if he was telling the truth. When she saw he was, she walked closer to the table and squatted to look at the fine details of all the figurines. “These are impressive.”

He set the box on a wooden part of the table. “Clarke do you know anything about the battle of Troy?”

 _This is what he wanted to talk about?_ She was starting to get nervous and stood, “Yeah, wasn’t it a battle for the world’s most beautiful woman? What does this have to do with the necklace?”

“Come on Clarke,” he said, “I haven’t known you for long, but the way you were looking at Lana earlier..”

“Dude, I told you, there’s nothing there. She’s just really pretty, that’s it. Nothing more.” She stood and turned to him.

He laughed a little, “And my father loves me like a son.” He walked over to the bar cart and poured himself a drink.

“I hope so?” she was puzzled. _Why was he insisting on this?_ “What’s your point?”

“Let’s just say, the name on my birth certificate reads pawn.” He took a giant swig, “I am telling you that you like Lana and Whitney knows it. He feels threatened.”

She sighed, “Dude, I don’t know what I have to do to convince you that I am straighter than a wooden board.”

 _Except wooden boards can be warped,_ a little voice in the back of her head taunted.

“Even if you don’t like her,” he argued, “You have to be at least concerned for her safety, even as a friend. Guys like her boyfriend who attack other women aren’t safe. You know that.”

She rolled her eyes, “So what do I say? Hey Lana, your boyfriend stripped me down to my underwear and tied me up to a pole like a scarecrow, you should break up with him.” 

He looked at her as if to say yes, exactly that. Then he picked up the box. “This box was forged from the armor of St. George, the dragon slayer. My mom gave it to my dad to give it to me for my twelfth birthday before she passed.” 

“Lex, I can’t take that.” She was stunned he was even offering it. She only needed the necklace.

He brought the box closer and she braced for impact. When it didn’t come, she wondered if the necklace was even in the box. He wouldn’t call her over if he was going to pull a bait n switch, would he? She considered him a friend at this point. Then he opened the box. And sitting in it, was the necklace. The pain hit her instantly. She tried to get away from the necklace without seeming too weird about it, but tripped while walking backwards. He immediately shut the box and she was able to shoot back up like nothing happened.

He looked a little worried, “Clarke, are you ok?”

She waved it off, “Yes, Lex I’m fine.”

They talked a little while longer about the game plan to get Lana to break up with Whitney to keep her safe.

…

Whitney closed his locker door and almost screamed; his girlfriend was standing right behind it waiting for him to close it. He gauged her sardonic facial expression and knew he was in trouble.

“Where were you before the game?”

 _Oh shit, she’s not fucking around. Lana knows, she has to._ “I was with you babe,” he answered, “Remember? We went to Biggie’s and got hamburgers.”

She snorted, “No, that wasn’t the question I was asking Whitney. You know that.”

 _FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK,_ “I was hanging with the guys Lana.” He put his hands on her shoulders, well, tried to.

She stepped out of his reach, “Hanging with the boys hanging up Clarke?”

“It’s just a joke we pull every year Lana,” he swallowed nervously while trying to laugh it off, “We don’t mean anything by it. Honest.”

“It didn’t seem like that in the pictures Whitney,” her posture was closed off and Whitney knew that there was nothing he could do. “Where’s my necklace?”

He was fucked. “I, uh, lost it.”

“I want my necklace back. If I get it back, maybe I’ll forgive you.” She simply walked away, phone in hand, leaving him to wonder if he had lost her for good.

…

“Hey Lana,” Greg greeted, trying to catch up with her, “Where were you at the library today? We were supposed to work on English, remember?”

She stopped in the empty stairwell processing what was happening and texting Clarke. Suddenly, she remembered. “Oh jeez, Greg, I am so sorry I forgot. Can we reschedule? I have to talk to Clarke.”

“So you’re just going to blow me off for her, huh?”

She didn’t turn around, but if she did, she would have seen a very angry Greg Arkin. “Greg, I am not ditching you, I just really need to talk to Clarke, it’s an emergency.” And for the second time that day, she was walking away from someone who just wanted her heart.

…

“Hey Clarke, you got a minute? I tried to text you but, that didn’t work out.” Lana looked at Clarke’s phone on the coffee table that was in the loft.

Clarke had just gotten in from standing out in the field. She hid the box when Lana wasn’t looking. Then she looked up at the loft to meet Lana’s eyes. “Sorry, I must have forgotten it on the charger.” That was a lie. It was purposely left there. She walked up to Lana so they could talk.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

“Clarke I am so sorry about Whitn-“

“Stop,” she interrupted, “I don’t want you apologizing for Whitney, you hear? He is a dumbass all by himself.

“And yet,” Lana paused, “You still saved his life, why?”

She looked at the wood flooring of the loft and played with the dust at her feet. She should really sweep. “I dunno, I think I’d rather see someone survive than die right in front of my eyes. That would be kind of traumatic, wouldn’t you agree?”

She rolled her eyes, but Clarke didn’t see. “I guess,” Lana paused again, “Anyway, that’s not what I came here to talk about.”

Clarke looked up at Lana, “Then why did you come?” She had a bad feeling about this.

“I wanted to see you Clarke,” the girl confessed, “Lex told me what happened and- “

She instantly got angry. He never told her he was going to talk to Lana. “He doesn’t know the half of it,” she barked and stepped closer to the other girl, “and neither do you.”

“Maybe I don’t,” Lana’s eyes became watery, she looked around trying to put words together, “But you can tell me-“ She reached and grabbed Clarke’s bicep, giving it a comforting squeeze. This seemed to cool the other girl, only for a moment.

She wrenched her arm from the other’s grasp, “No Lana, you need to listen to me very carefully. That night never happened, ok?”

This time, it was Lana that became angry, her fists clenched. “You want to pretend those pictures never happened? Clarke, he gave me the CD with the video and pictures, I saw how much you were suffering…”

It was at this moment; Clarke knew why Sarah didn’t want her to play sports. Her rage was almost uncontainable. “I don’t want to fucking talk about it. If you want to make yourself feel better about it, go talk to your dickhead boyfriend,” she snapped cruelly, taking no prisoners. Clarke didn’t realize that she wasn’t looking at Lana until she finished. When she did, Clarke had never seen the other girl look so small.

“He’s not my boyfriend right now,” she whispered, looking at the floor. 

Clarke could barely hear what she said and tried to process it. She instantly became calmer, “What?”

“We’re on a break,” she said, louder and making eye contact, “We’ve been dating for so long that I haven’t seen a lot of things in my life till now. I lent him my necklace and he lost it. That necklace was so damn important to me Clarke. I thought I could trust him a-a-a-nd he put it on you, Clarke.” she started to actually _cry. It broke_ Clarke’s heart.

Clarke stepped closer and engulfed her friend in a bear hug, “Lana, I’m…”

The girl pushed herself out of Clarke’s embrace, “You should hate me right now, I’m the reason you were up on that pole and-and-and…”

“Look at me,” the alien grabbed her shoulders and forcibly made her look at her, “Not a single thing that happened that night was your fault. Whitney got jealous for some reason and hazed me.”

Her wide eyes gazed deep into the other girl’s, “Clarke, I…”

She suddenly realized this was strangely intimate, so she let Lana go and walked over to the window of the loft to gaze over the farm. She decided to change the subject. “I’ve been looking for the necklace in the field, but maybe someone else grabbed after I left."

Lana felt the tension leaving her body, thankful for a topic change. She rolled her eyes, “Clarke, I can’t ask you to…”

She interrupted, “No, no it’s my responsibility, I had it last.” Clarke turned to smile at Lana. 

The other girl let out a watery laugh and crossed her arms playfully, “I guess I can’t talk you out of it then, can I?”

Somehow, Clarke’s impossibly wide grin got even wider. “Nope,” she said, popping the p.

Lana uncrossed her arms and grabbed Clarke’s hand. “If you’re going to go to all this trouble, then I might as well tell you why it’s so important,” she led her _friend_ over to the loveseat and they both sat down. Embarrassingly, they both fell into the center of the small couch, practically on top of each other.

Clarke mentally slaps herself; she’s been meaning to fix it for months and for some reason hasn’t done it yet. And now, the issue is kicking her in the face. “Ahah sorry, I’ve been meaning to fix this uhhh I can go grab a…”

Lana smiled. For some reason, it looked like she was happy the seat was broken and that they were in this predicament. “No, no, it’s fine. Um, so,” she paused to take a deep breath, “When my parents died, they were struck by one of the meteors from the shower.” Clarke knew this and it almost killed her not to say anything. “My uncle had a necklace made out of the meteor a few days after. When he gave it to me, he told me that I would always have a piece of my parents right with me if I wore that necklace.” Lana looked at both of their hands. “I didn’t want to wear it at first. Whenever I saw it, I relived the memory; but as time went on, I missed them. It took me five years to put on the necklace and wear it every day.” She looked up and met the other girl’s eyes.

Clarke let out a breath, “Wow, that’s…”

A Thousand Miles suddenly blares from the other girl's phone.

Lana’s eyes almost bugged out of her head, “Oh my god, that’s Harvey! Look, this was great, but I have to go,” she said hurrying to grab her coat. She glanced at the clock, “Oh no… my curfew was ten minutes ago. I’m so dead.” The teen dashed down the stairs.

Clarke got up and supersped to the loft’s wooden rickety railing, “I guess it’s a good thing you live across the street.”

She laughed, “I guess it is, see you around.”

…

He started molting. In the shower. It wasn’t long before he would need to find a queen. Not that it would be hard. In fact, he already had one chosen. The wonderful Lana Lang. But first, he needed to pay a special someone a visit.

…

“Mom, I’m telling you, Greg has powers,” the alien teen insisted. 

Greg showed up at the Kent farm not ten minutes ago, he was crawling the walls like a bug. It would have been pretty impressive if he wasn’t trying to murder Clarke.

“Oh honey,” Sarah sat down and put her phone next to herself, flashlight up. “I know you want to believe what is happening is real, but it’s just fairytales. If you’re talking about crop abnormalities and two headed cows, I have a better explanation, Luthor Corp.”

Clarke turned to look at her mom, her attention captured. “Mom, this _is_ real. I know it’s real because of the Wall of Weird.”

Sarah’s brows furrowed, “The Wall of what?”

“Cole has been documenting all of the weird shit that’s been happening in Smallville,” she huffed, “You want to take a grand guess as to when it started?”

“Honey, I know it seems like that,” Sarah was at a loss, “But there’s no way to tell if all of this is because of the meteor shower…”

“Then why do I feel responsible, huh?”

Martha entered, joining the two after searching another part of the barn. “Hon, are you sure it was him, I remember him from when you two were younger and I just don’t think this is him,” she said, “his mom was strict, but not so much that he would turn out like this. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Clarke smirked, “He was too busy collecting them.”

…

Cole was having a rough day at school. His classes were pounding him with homework, and on top of that, he noticed Clarke had been acting really weird lately. As a friend, he noticed as a friend

“Hey Cole, what’s up,” she greeted, and started to walk with him to his next class.

 _Speak of the devil._ “Nothing much, why?” He was puzzled, Clarke had a tone in her voice, but he couldn’t discern what it was.

“Is Greg still a reporter for E-Torch?” she asked.

 _That chickenshit, what is he up to now?_ “A reporter is normally defined as someone who shows up and meets deadlines so… to answer your question, no,” he responded, “He’s been AWOL since last week. Why?”

“I need to talk to him,” she said already retreating into her own thoughts.

 _Pleasenopleasenopleaseno-_ “What looking for a close up of him or his bug collection,” he teased, hoping for the best. He really didn’t want to explain to his best friend that she shouldn’t date a bug guy.

“It’s nothing,” she muttered, already walking away, “Talk to you later.”

“I hate it when you do that,” he confessed, standing in the middle of the hallway, “You shut me out and walk away.”

She turned around confused, “No I-“

“It’s like you’re here one minute and the next,” he paused for effect, “You’re gone. I’m getting tired of it. Are you outgrowing me as a friend?” Cole was still standing in the middle of the hallway, but now he was vulnerable, in public. The pain of loosing her would be unimaginable.

“C’mon dude,” she walked back to her friend, “if anything, you’re the one that’s out growing me. Vertically, that is.” She laughed at her own joke, and thankfully, so did Cole.

He looked down at her still smiling, “You’re lucky you’re cute, Kent. What’s up with Greg anyway?”

“Um, this is going to sound weird, but do you know anything about bug bites?”

…

Clarke sat next to her friend who was staring at the screen, absorbing the information, “Dude, I’m not seeing anything here that’s close to what you’re describing, except for some deaths in Amazon tribes.” They had been there for an hour, trying to research any possible way Greg got his powers. So far, they had nothing.

She sighed, “maybe this is all in my head, but why would I want my friend from fourth grade to suddenly have powers from the shower?”

Cole stilled, “Fourth grade, that’s after the meteor shower happened. There’s no way… unless his bugs were exposed…”

“Those rocks are all over the place dude,” she disagreed.

“No, but that’s it,” he stood, “they’re everywhere, if the habitat is infected then so are the bugs... and anyone that the bugs happen to sting.”

“You’re a mosquito magnet,” she retorted, “how come you haven’t gotten powers yet, genius?”

“Bug bites can be fatal if a person is swarmed because of the toxins administered. I the Amazonian tribes who were attacked by swarms died.”

“Greg kept bugs in his room,” she said thoughtfully, “maybe they threw a revolt?”

“If this is true, we have to make sure he hasn’t gone Kafka and found a mate. He might die soon and that will definitely be his next move.”

…

After getting her up to speed, Paige peered into the window of Greg’s house and momentarily looked disgusted. “Dude, something’s wrong in there,” she warned, “It looks like a tornado went through. Do you remember Greg’s mom making us take our shoes off?”

“Yeah, she was a neat freak. Once, I forgot, and she yelled at me.” Clarke stepped away to sit on the wooden porch railing.

“Did that end the friendship?” Cole wondered, both her and Paige walking over to Clarke.

“No, uh,” Paige stammered, trying to remember, “His parents got divorced in seventh grade. We got invited over less and less. Which _really_ sucked because his dad built a sick ass fort in the woods.”

Clarke rolled her eyes, “It was okay…”

Paige laughed, “You’re just saying that because every time we went, you got sick.”

“I was not great with heights, besides there was no way in hell it was structurally sound,” she defended.

“Sure,” Paige said, not believing a word of it.

Cole then redirected the conversation to what the group came to do. He tried to open the window from the outside, and to his surprise, it opened. “Guys, come on,” he nodded his head inside. 

The group climbed in with little difficulty, but moving around the mess was a different story. To say the house was wrecked was an understatement. How Ms. Arkin wasn’t freaking out right now, Paige and Clarke wouldn’t know.

The group walked through the house, appalled by what they were seeing. Then Cole took a peek into one of the rooms and screamed. The other two rushed over to see what was wrong and found a bathtub with skin in it. It was almost like Greg molted. Actually, he did. He got powers from a space rock and now he’s a damn bug. Paige took some pictures of the scene with her phone and the three moved on. The next room they went to was Greg’s. Clarke didn’t know what to expect, but a shrine to Lana Lang wouldn’t have been on the list.

“So... “ Cole started, “Not to freak out anything, but I think Greg found his queen.”

Clarke noticed a cocoon in the corner of the room. She had a gut feeling about what was in it. Dragging her feet over, she dreaded what was about to happen. The other two watched. She raised her arms, grabbed, and tore at the disgusting sack. A decomposing Ms. Arkin fell out.

Before anyone could really react Clarke was out the door.

…

To be honest, it was kind of refreshing to see Whitney like this. Silent and knocked out.

She lightly slapped him awake, “Where’s Lana?”

He came back to consciousness and freaked out. “He’s got her Clarke, he’s got my Lana.”

She never thought she’d have to do this, but she calmed him down. “It’s going to be ok Whitney, do you know where he said he’d be?”

“I don’t know,” he stammered, “A freak like him has to have a place in the woods.”

 _Of course, Greg’s gotta go to the one place where she can’t protect Lana._ She kept her voice level, “Here’s what’s going to happen, I’m going to ask for your phone number, you’re going to give it to me, and I’m going to send you an address. Ok?”

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered. 

Clarke didn’t know what happened before she got to the stables, but she knew that Whitney might go into shock. He wouldn’t be any good to anyone then. She got the number and sent him the location.

“Take a deep breath with me, ok,” she instructed, “In, out, in, out.” He seemed to be a little calmer now. “You’re going to help me get Lana back, ok?” He nodded. “Go to that address.”

“Ok, I’ll drive,” he said while he started to get up. “I want to apologize-,” But when he looked around for Clarke, she was gone.

… 

Clarke supersped to the fort. As she neared, she became weaker. But she knew what was at stake, Lana’s life. As soon as she popped up the door she saw Lana, wrapped up into a cocoon. She went to free her.

“Get away from her,” Greg sneered from the corner.

“What are you doing Greg?” she asked, “I know what happened to you, you’re-”

“I was nothing,” he hissed, “I was weak and pathetic.”

She had to think, like really think. She couldn’t really use her powers here. In fact, she was already feeling a little queasy. Maybe leaving was the best option, Whitney would get here soon, right?

She took the fight to the old abandoned barn.

# …

He almost crashed seven times in the twenty minutes it took to get to the address Clarke had given him. It really was a wonder that he got there in one piece. He shot up the ladder and entered the fort to find Lana… in a cocoon? _What the hell?_ He raced over and ripped open the shell. She immediately awoke.

“Whit!” she screamed, hugging him.

Man, it felt great to have her back in his arms again. “I’m right here babe. Everything is going to be ok.”

# …

It was time. She stared out the window of her loft at the moon. If it didn’t happen now, then it never would. Clarke had to return the necklace. After grabbing the box, she super sped over to Lana’s. 

When she got there, it was pretty clear there was no plan. How was she going to tell her where the necklace came from? Was she going to apologize for losing it? Her brain short circuited. 

A light came on in the house, Clarke was too nervous so she left it wrapped onto the door handle.


End file.
